Image: PIA24746(cropped) Jezero Crater Floor Fractured Rough

Description: The “Crater Floor Fractured Rough” on the Eastern side of the Séítah locality of the Jezero crater is the area on Mars from which NASA’s Perseverance rover will collect its first rock sample. Note: Pronunciation of Jezero is [ˈjɛzəroʊ] (like in 'yes'), not [ˈdʒɛzəroʊ] — https://www.space.com/how-to-pronounce-jezero-crater.html] The original image of the “Crater Floor Fractured Rough” (also informally called “paver rocks” by the Perseverance team) was combined from 28 individual images taken by the rover’s Mastcam-Z right-eye camera on July 8, 2021 (the 136th sol, or Martian day, of the mission). The Mastcam-Z investigation is led and operated by Arizona State University in Tempe, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Neils Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
Title: PIA24746(cropped) Jezero Crater Floor Fractured Rough
Credit: https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/deepzooms/26066_PIA24746_MAIN_FINAL_Sol0136P_zcam08143_Z048_R0N.jpg
Author: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
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